e" from the last comer. Such close
contact, even with our best friends, is never desirable; but in warm
weather, in a close, confined air, with a manifest scarcity of clean
linen, it became particularly inconvenient. The population here very
far exceeded the limits usually allotted to human beings in any
situation of life except in a slave-ship. The midshipmen, of whom there
were eight full grown, and four youngsters, were without either jackets
or waistcoats; some of them had their shirt-sleeves rolled up, either to
prevent the reception or to conceal the absorption of dirt in the region
of the wristbands. The repast on the table consisted of a can or large
black-jack of small beer, and a japan bread-basket, full of sea-biscuit.
To compensate for this simple fare, and at the same time to cool the
close atmosphere of the berth, the table was covered with a large green
cloth with a yellow border, and many yellow spots withal, where the
colour had been discharged by slops of vinegar, hot tea, etcetera,
etcetera; a sack of potatoes stood in one corner, and the shelves all
round, and close over our heads, were stuffed with plates, glasses,
quadrants, knives and forks, loaves of sugar, dirty stockings and
shirts, and still fouler table-cloths, small tooth-combs, and ditto
large, clothes brushes and shoe brushes, cocked-hats, dirks, German
flutes, mahogany writing-desks, a plate of salt butter, and some two or
three pairs of naval half-boots. A single candle served to make
darkness visible, and the stench had nearly overpowered me.

The reception I met with tended in no way to relieve these horrible
impressions. A black man, with no other dress than a dirty check shirt
and trousers, not smelling of amber, stood within the door, ready to
obey all and any one of the commands with which he was loaded. The
smell of the towel he held in his hand to wipe the plates and glasses
with, completed my discomfiture; and I fell sick upon the seat nearest
at me. Recovering from this, without the aid of any "ministering
angel," I contracted the pupils of my eyes, and ventured to look around
me. The first who met my gaze, was my recent foe; he bore the marks of
contention by having his eye bound up with brown paper and a dirty silk
pocket-handkerchief; the other was quickly turned on me; and, with a
savage and brutal countenance, he swore and denounced the severest
vengeance on me for what I had done. In this, he was joined by anothe